Sean MacEntee

Sean MacEntee (23 August 1889-9 January 1984) was a Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail TD from December 1918 to June 1969 and as Tanaiste from 23 June 1959 to 21 April 1965 (succeeding Sean Lemass and preceding Frank Aiken).

Biography
Sean MacEntee was born in Belfast, County Down, Ireland in 1889 to Irish Catholic parents from County Monaghan. He joined the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising, and his initial death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment; he was released during the general amnesty of 1917. MacEntee went on to be elected to the Dail Eireann in 1918 as a Sinn Fein TD, and he served in the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and served under Cathal Brugha during the Irish Civil War. In 1926, he became a founder-member of Fianna Fail, following Eamon de Valera, Sean Lemass, and Sean T. O'Kelly out of Sinn Fein to create a new republican party. He served as Minister for Finance from 1932 to 1939, implementing protective tariffs against British goods and starting a trade war which lasted until 1938. He went on to serve as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1939 to 1941, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1941 to 1948, Minister of Finance from 1951 to 1954, Minister for Health from 1957 to 1965, Minister for Social Welfare from 1957 to 1961, and Tanaiste from 1959 to 1965. He died in 1984 at the age of 94, the last surviving member of the first Dail.